Remove cudweed from centipede lawn

Q: We have a full sun, fescue back yard being taken over by cudweed. The lawn is really not in great shape because of the high cost of water where we live. We have plenty of bare spots as well. If we don’t do something we will have a mostly silvery-green lawn.

A: To begin, fescue is not a great choice for a full sun lawn. Common bermuda grass would be better, especially if you can’t water it.

If you spray the cudweed with weed killer now, it sounds like you won’t have much of anything at all to look at back there.

Here’s what I’d do: drag the yard with something rough, like a piece of chain-link fence, and plant bermuda grass seed in early May. Then pray for enough rain in early summer to get it up and growing.

Once you can see a light green haze on the yard, fertilize with lawn fertilizer (not weed’n’feed). Fertilize again in six weeks. If we have normal summer rain, the bermuda grass will eventually choke out cudweed. Keep the grass healthy and you won’t need weed killer.